Tiong Bahru Heritage Trail & Forty Hands Review

Singapore being such a tiny island, sometimes, we may just run out of ideas on how to spend our precious weekend.

Besides shopping and movies, what else can we do in Singapore? 

Why not try walking around Tiong Bahru Heritage Trail and indulge ourselves in the juxtaposition of old and new Singapore?

Old architectural buildings with
new chic cafes & boutiques within


The Tiong Bahru Heritage Trail is officially launch on 14 April 2013 to capture and bring life to one of the oldest estate in Singapore. 

When we walked around Tiong Bahru Heritage Trail, it felt like we have walked into the 80's century. 

Push cart selling Satay!

My hubby and I were lucky to find the last push cart satay stall in Singapore. 

This old man has been selling satay from his wooden push cart for the last 37 years!

 Besides old buildings and a hidden push cart, we have found many paintings and drawings on walls and along the small lanes within Tiong Bahru.

There are also many esoteric book stores, cafes and boutiques hidden around the corners. 

After a day of adventures, we set our foot into a cafe known as "Forty Hands" hidden inside the old estate. 

It is small cafe operates from Tue to Sun between 8am to 7pm. 

When we walked into the cafe, we were pleasantly welcomed by the strong coffee aroma.

Being a traditional coffee lover, a picture on the wall caught my hubby's attention. 

 Since it was our first time at the place, we decided to try their signature dishes & coffee. 

Tau Sar Pau

Kong Ba Pau

Toast Bread

Truffle Fries

Forty Hands is located at:

#01-12, 78 Yong Siak Street

Tue - Thu: 08:00 - 19:00

Fri - Sat: 08:00 - 22:00

Sun: 08:00 - 19:00

Closed: Mon

If you are thinking of how to spend your weekend, you may want to drop by Tiong Bahru to spend a day to understand the olden Singapore and have a satisfying brunch at Forty Hands. 

With love,

Evelyn 

Top 4 Things to do in KOREA!

Hi all,

It has been a busy week.
I realized that there are too much to share for my Korea trip.
SO, I have decided to compile it into a top list (not in order of preference) for the MUST DO things in Korea.


NO 1: SHOPPING FOR FACIAL PRODUCTS
Korea is well known for their facial and beauty products.
It is a MUST to buy your one year supply of masks when travel to Korea.
Not only that their masks are well known for their quality, they are also cheaper.
For example, one mask which I have purchased in Korea for about S$1/mask (minimum to purchase 20 pieces), is selling about S$9/mask in Singapore.
I save S$8 per piece!!
I have purchased a whole luggage of masks for my two years supply.

Walking along Korea streets, you will find that there are numerous facial product shops.

1. The Face Shop
2. Etude House 
3. Nature Republic
4. Skin Food
5. The Saem
6. Tony Moly
7. Innis free
8. Banila Co

and too many more....

It is interesting to see that they have so many types of products.
Korea's beauty business has turned into a multi-million dollar industry, evident by the number of shops, products and crowd.

Literally bought a luggage of masks!

So many different brands of masks!

Along Myeongdong Street

Based on experience, products purchased at Myeongdong is slightly more expensive than duty free shop.
I'll advise you to purchase the facial products from duty free department store such as Lotte. It is generally cheaper.

The Odbo

Before travelling to Korea, my friends recommended me to try The Odbo products which are only available in Korea. Since it is recommended, we made the effort to search for the outlet when we traveled to Korea.
They only have one outlet in Seoul and it's not very accessible. It's nearest subway station is Mapo-gu on line 6. From subway exit 3 and we need to walk about 15-25 mins to the outlet (or take a bus).

we followed another blogger's post on the directions to finally reach there.
http://missingray.wordpress.com/2012/12/02/directions-to-odbo-putlet-seoul/

I have tried The Odbo facial cleanser, masks and the EGCG Ampoule which I really love. Too bad, they are not sold in Singapore.


NO 2: SKI RESORT!!
One of the best activities in Korea is definitely skiing!
If you like adventurous stuff then skiing is your cup of tea. Even if you are not adventurous, I will still recommend you to try skiing for once in a life time experience.
Korea is one of the most value for money skiing places as compared to places like Switzerland.
There are numerous Ski Resorts in Korea and according to CNN the 7 best ski resorts are:

1. Yongpyong Resort
2. High1 Resort
3. Phoenix Resort
4. Vivaldi Park
5. Konjiam Resort
6. Muji Deukyusan Resort
7. Alpensia Resort

(sources: http://travel.cnn.com/seoul/play/7-best-ski-resorts-korea-103896)

My hubby and I have went to Vivaldi Resort @ Daemyung because it's near to Seoul. 

Vivaldi Park is about a 2 hour bus ride from Seoul. There is a shopping mall and an Ocean World Water Park around the resort area. 

We managed to book the ski resort package through Winterfriend and spent 2D1N at the resort. We traveled there by shuttle bus early in the morning at 6am and reached the resort at about 8++am where we checked in and met up with the tour guide who helped us to prepare the ski equipment. 

We got to know this Winterfriend agency through friend's recommendation. They have a nicely done website (http://www.winterfriend.com/) which provides brief description of different resorts and numerous ski packages and they even allow a customized ski tour. We booked the package through email. Before making the confirmation, we asked lot of questions through email and they were very efficient in replying to our queries. 

Winterfriend provides a one-stop service to booking of transport, hotel, ski equipment, ski pass and also ticket to Ocean World. 

When we returned to Singapore and reflected upon our Korea trip, we would say our ski experience is the most memorable. 

There are Day Ski and Night Ski. We tried the Day Ski and took photos of the skiing slopes from our hotel at night

NO 3.: JIMJILBANG
We visited the Ocean World in the resort area during winter season so we did not managed to play the water games as it's really too cold to swim outdoor in bikini.

So, instead, we went straight to the Jimjilbang experience in Ocean World.

Jimjilbang refers to public bathhouse and is a popular weekend getaway for Korean family.

A uniquely Korean experience.

In Jimilbang, there is a well furnished bathing area and also hot & cold spa separated by genders.
My favorite is the outdoor hot spa. I remember running out naked into the snowing outdoor hot spa pool. It felt really good to be dipped in hot spa when the surrounding was snowing...

After a good bathe, my hubby and I met at the common area where there are places to rest, sleep and eat. There are also saunas rooms of varies temperatures.

I love Jimjilbang! 

NO 4: JEJU ISLAND
Everyone who visit Korea should at least make a short trip to Jeju island.
There are many sight seeing locations, interesting museums and stories of their history.
Someone from Jeju Island told us that Jeju Island have 三多：风多，石多，女人多, meaning Jeju island is well known for having strong wind, stones and higher population of women as compared to men.
In their history, Jeju island used to have very few women and men were treated like kings.
Due to the unbalanced population, Jeju's women were tasked to do most of the chores.
And men had the privilege to marry many wives.

In the past, women in Jeju were the ones to bring food on the table. As such, many of them became women divers known as 海女，who will dive into deep sea to get precious abalone and seafood for sale and their own consumption.

There are really many places to visit within Jeju Island. I can blog a whole post on just the top things to do at Jeju Island!

For now, I will briefly touch on the places we have visited.

1. O'sulloc Tea Museum
2. Seongsan Ilchullong peak
3. Seongeup Folk Village
4. Hallabong Plantation
5. Mysterious road
6. Jeju Loveland
7. Manjanggul Lava Cave
8. Cheonjeyeon Waterfalls

Hope that this will help for those planning to visit Korea soon! 

I Miss My Korea Trip!

With Love,

Evelyn

Korea Trip - Nami Island, the white island

In the previous post, I mentioned about finding our way to our guesthouse.

Today, I'm going to blog about Nami Island!

23 Dec 2013 (Nami Island, the white island)

On the 2nd day, we woke up early and set off to Nami Island.

Down the long slope from our guesthouse

Bought a Vitamin C drink from convenience store. For a healthy day

How to get to Nami Island? 

You can get there by shuttle bus or train.

By Shuttle Bus:

Bus Stops (there are 2 bus stops and there is only one timing)
(1) Insa-dong (Jonggak Station, Subway Line 1, Exit 3). Next to Tapgol Park
(2) Jamsil Station (Subway Line 2, Exit 4). In front of Lotte Mart
Insa-dong/Jamsil Station → Gapyeong.  Shuttle bus set off from bus stop at 09:30
Gapyeong → Insa-dong/Jamsil Station. Shutter bus leave Gapyeong at 16:00

Advanced reservation required. (Inquiries +82-2-753-1247)
7500 won one way trip
15000 won two way trip
23000 won round trip+entrance visa to Nami Island+ferry ticket.

SO WHAT IF YOU MISS THE SHUTTLE BUS?

Don't worry. You may reach via the train route.

By Train (118 mins) : 

Departure - Myeong-Dong Station (Line 4) 

Transfer - Dongdaemun History & Culture Park (Quick transfer : 1Car2Door)

Transfer  - Wangsimni (Quicktransfer : 8car4door)

Transfer - Mangu (Quick transfer : 4Car4Door)

Arrival  - Gapyeong 

When we reached Gapyeong, we need to purchase a ferry ticket to the island.

We have reached Gapyeong! 
Let's take a photo with the snowman

It takes a 5 min ferry ride to the island



AND HERE WE ARE!!!

Does this place remind you of a Korea Drama?
Winter Sonata. Yes! It's this place.

Nami Island is a place for photo taking and sight seeing. 

The appearance of the island varies in four seasons. 

This island is well known for it's beautiful landscape and peacefulness. 

WELL, PICTURES SPEAK LOUDER THAN WORDS!

The next day is shopping day!!

Check out on the next post.

With Love, 
Evelyn